hicken
scientists will have plenty to cluck about in the coming months. The genome
sequence of the chicken is expected in March 2004, and DNA sequences are
already rolling off the machines at Washington University in St. Louis,
Missouri.

The researchers behind the project have formed the Chicken Genome Consortium
and are launching a new Web site called ChickNET—a gateway to all
things related to the chicken genome.

The chicken genome could help researchers interpret the human genome.
The humble bird will be the closest non-mammalian animal to be sequenced,
and comparisons between the species should reveal genes preserved throughout
evolution and regions of DNA that regulate genes.

The Consortium unites a historically scattered crew of poultry researchers.
For a century, chicks have been the darlings of developmental biologists.
But there has never been much talk between these researchers and their
colleagues who study chicken genetics.

Meanwhile, the poultry industry and animal health industry have tried
to find genes involved in making chickens faster-growing, meatier and
healthier birds.

“Now, for the first time, with the chicken genome coming out, these
different groups are talking to each other,” says Dave Burt of the
Roslin Institute, in Edinburgh, Scotland, who co-authors a commentary
on the project in today’s issue of Science.

Researchers will have three chicken genomes to pluck from. Washington
University is sequencing the Jungle Fowl, an ancestral breed derived from
jungle chickens living in Malaysia about 5,000 years ago.

The Beijing Genome Institute in China is sequencing two breeds, the White
Leghorn, prized for its egg-laying, and the Broiler, found in many grocery
stores. These breeds will be compared to the Jungle Fowl to create a reference
sequence for the species.

Among other projects, the Consortium plans to build a database of gene
activity during embryonic development.